OKCBusiness
By Randall Turk
 
Campus Corner, the shopping district just across Boyd Street from the University of Oklahoma, is just as dynamic as the ever-changing fads embraced by OU students. 

From year to year, Campus Corner shops, restaurants and watering holes come and go, lured by a new crop of students and their wealth. With few exceptions, most of these upstart new businesses fold their tents after a few school seasons, betrayed by a fickle market or maybe just the folly of mistaken marketing. The winning formula is giving customers what they want at prices a good many of them are willing to pay.

New to the Corner this year are a couple of deli-style eateries, a Starbucks coffee outlet, three trendy women’s clothing boutiques and an upscale men’s clothing shop. A huge new bookstore is under construction. And a mammoth sports bar on the Corner has shut down as it is undergoing renovation by an old hand on the Norman saloon scene.

Those wiser on the Corner know some tastes never change. Purveyors of cool duds, cheap suds and french-fried spuds are still “in.”
 

Food chain covered

None the least of these is “Fat Sandwich Company,” a deli on Asp Avenue specializing in monstrous combinations loaded between 8-inch amoroso rolls. The business was opened by three guys, recent Penn State grads who surveyed college towns throughout the country before settling on Norman. Diners can build their own sandwiches or select from more than 20 aptly named $6 and $7 creations, with fried philly cheese steak being the most common ingredient. Typical is the “Fat Dutchie,” built of cheese steak, fried mozzarella cheese sticks, a pork roll, a fried egg, mayonnaise and ketchup.

Up the street and on the other end of the food chain is The Earth Café and Deli, owned by Kate and Richard Haas. The Earth provides organic or naturally grown, mostly vegetarian sandwiches, salads, soups and desserts. The kitchen help says by far the most popular sandwich is the “Uber Super Earth,” a quarter pound veggie burger served with melted farmer’s cheese, grilled red onions, avocado, sprouts, lettuce and tomato with stone-ground mustard and vegan mayonnaise on a sprouted grain bun. They retail it for $5.75.

Over the summer, The Earth Café and Deli moved into the small eatery previously occupied by the Turquoise Café. The Turquoise, famous for its French-style cuisine modified with Oklahoma ingredients, operated on the Corner for two years, then moved down Asp Avenue into a larger home, the former Red Dirt Bar & Grill and nighttime music spot. The new location for the renamed “Turquoise American Bistro” goes all the way back to World War II, when it was known as Liberty Drug Store. The hangout was popular with OU bobbysoxers and Navy base trainees for (guess what?) its thick malts, big burgers and french fries.

Turquoise Bistro owner Richard Hull and his “right-hand man,” Adam Westby, learned the basics in culinary schools and apprenticed with the renowned Christine Rose Dowd in Oklahoma City. Dowd purchased Oklahoma City’s Montgomery Building and installed Trattoria IL Centro, where Hull and Westby got their start.
 

Churning bar ownership

Once only a breakfast and lunch spot, the Turquoise American Bistro now provides dinner, as well. “We’ve found our niche in fine food at moderate prices,” Hull said. “We’ve really grown.”

Evening entrees, $12 to $19, include such offerings as roasted pork tenderloin with mango/mustard glaze, chipotle and miso glazed salmon and farm-raised quail with fried potato and shallot hash, ancho/tomato coulis and pico de gallo.

After barely three years of noisy operation on the Corner, Al Eschbach’s Hall of Fame Sports Bar & Grill left, soon to be replaced by O’Connell’s Irish Pub & Grill. The 6,000-square-foot location is being remodeled by owner Jeff Stewart who aims for a fall opening.

O’Connell’s, in business since 1968, is being forced to move from its long-time location across the street from Owen Field. OU has purchased the O’Connell’s site and other properties southeast of Lindsey Street and Jenkins Avenue for campus expansion.

After a very expensive renovation and operating only about two years, Malone’s Cavern has vanished from the Corner. Malone’s, a bar and grill, was tucked between Asp and Buchanan in the former location of Walter Mitty’s, (whose chief fame was “exotic dancers”). The windowless building is again undergoing a renovation for some unnamed purpose.

After more than a decade of flip-flops, sweatshirts and halter-tops, elegant clothing stores are returning to the Corner.
 

Trendy boutiques back

Trendy women’s boutiques such as Estella Rays and Blush, along with Catalyst Clothing for men, have all opened in Harold’s Square, an upscale strip center on Buchanan Avenue. Cristy Ray, owner of Estella Rays, opened the store late last year to offer women’s designer fashions, accessories, six or seven different brands of jeans and even maternity clothing.

Amanda Clark opened Blush in August. An OU graduate and Duncan native, Clark lived in Austin for five years before returning with her husband. Blush offers young contemporary fashions and jewelry.

“Norman, especially Campus Corner, was a natural for this kind of store,” she said.

Around the corner at 319 W Boyd, is Lucca, a store with upscale clothing for men and women. Lucca, which also opened in August, partners Yaniv Segal and Emily Smith feature designer names including Ed Hardy, Colcci and Drifter, along with the Seven Diamonds men’s label.

That same month, Danya Streetman moved her “Happy Cat Yarn Shop” to 588 Buchanan. Customers purchase yarn and supplies and socialize in the lounge while they knit or crochet and enjoy live music during the lunch hour and on weekends.

And on the prime southeast corner of Boyd and Asp, Starbucks Coffee has been packing them in and stacking them out on sidewalk tables with exotic roast coffees and freshly baked pastries. Norman’s fourth Starbucks, across the street from OU’s north gate, is a departure from the worldwide coffee empire. The store’s interior is done up in OU’s crimson and cream colors. As with other Starbucks outlets, this one is heavily involved in community causes, as evidenced by posted notices and signup rosters everywhere.

Most buildings on the Corner, some approaching a century of commercial use, have been reworked many times. Owners and tenants have found it necessary to demolish interior walls, rewire, replumb and rebuild to suit changing city codes. Businesses competing for the same real estate have grown larger over the years. Once home to about 140 small businesses, Campus Corner now accommodates about 75 commercial tenants.
 

Survival often sweet

A prominent example of this phenomenon is a bustling construction site at 745 Asp the width of eight parking meters. A new Sooner Textbooks store is going in there. Workers have torn the front off the building that had housed three art and memorabilia shops. A framework of steel girders is being welded into place for a new storefront. Sooner Textbooks also was displaced by OU’s expansion south of the football stadium. A late fall opening date is estimated.

While a stormy ebb and flow of business may seem de rigueur for the Corner, there are several enterprises that have endured for many years. Among these is “Cookies ‘n’ Cards,” a bakery and gift store Nancy Russell has operated for 23 years. Russell bakes cookies, cakes and brownies to stock the store and for special orders. She also supplies her baked goods to other stores in Norman.

The store brims with jewelry, gifts and dorm-room essentials. She bakes cupcakes and enormous cookies with strawberry cream cheese icing and bold, chewy brownies and “carmelitas.” She assures customers that “none of my recipes has any calories.”

Russell said her store appeals to both male and female customers.

“They all like my cookies and cupcakes,” she said. “You can always tell the smart guys. They’re the ones in here shopping for their girlfriends.”